The Father of Genetics was Exhumed and His DNA Sequenced

Gregor Mendel was a 19th century Augustinian friar and scientist who is often called "the father of genetics." He didn't know about chromosomes or DNA, but he discovered and documented many of the rules of heritability, including dominant and recessive traits an organism inherits from its parents. Most of the organisms he studied were pea plants.

July 20, 2022, was the 200th anniversary of Mendel's birth. What could the scientific community do to appropriately honor Mendel for the occasion? A team of scientists in the Czech Republic, where Mendel lived and died, decided to sequence his DNA. Mendel always promoted the advance of science, and even requested an autopsy in the event of his death, so we might assume he would be okay with that. But the project was far from simple. They would have to get permission to exhume Mendel from a tomb owned by his Augustinian monastery. Then they would have to accurately identify his remains, which were buried in the same grave as four other monks. Read about the strange but appropriate memorial project and what they learned from the results at NPR.